Bank of Japan’s Surprise Lifts World Stocks Ahead of the Fed Decision

World stocks rose on Wednesday, led by a surge in bank shares, while the yen weakened after the Bank of Japan surprised markets by adopting a target for long-term interest rates.

With the global economy showing few signs of rebounding and investors fretting about the limits of major central banks’ easing, the BOJ’s move came as a welcome relief for markets.

The focus now shifts to the U.S. Federal Reserve policy decision later on Wednesday, with weaker-than-expected economic data prompting investors to call off bets on a rate hike.

Europe’s STOXX 600 was up 1% in early trading with euro zone banking shares up nearly 3% and poised for their best day in more than two months.

This came after the Japanese central bank maintained its 0.1% negative interest rate, but abandoned its base money target and instead set a “yield curve control” under which it will buy long-term government bonds to keep 10-year bond yields around current levels of 0%.

Skepticism about the sustainability of Tuesday’s moves, however, remains, particularly for the yen, which nevertheless clawed back much of its earlier loss.

“When the dust settles, we think this will be seen as a disappointment. The BOJ may have changed the interim target to the yield curve, but the instruments it is using to hit it are basically unchanged, barring minor tweaks,” said Adam Cole, head of G10 FX strategy at RBC Capital Markets.

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The U.S. dollar rose as high as 102.78 yen, but in early European trading had slipped back to 101.79 yen.

Futures markets pointed to Wall Street opening up around 0.5%, with attention set to switch to the Fed.

Recent hawkish and dovish comments from Fed officials have stoked volatility in financial markets, although consensus is now centered on the Fed raising rates in December.

In commodities, the brighter mood on risky assets saw U.S. crude oil futures up 1.8% to $46.71 a barrel.

Here’s What Happened When This Journalist Attempted To Buy A Literal Barrel Of Oil

No, this is not the plot of an episode of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. A reporter truly tried to buy a barrel of oil. Crude, that is.

Tracy Alloway, executive editor at Bloomberg Markets, decided she wanted to get her hands on the lethal substance back around 2008-2009 when a financial quirk known as a contango made the purchase seem like a good investment. (Or at least a good story for a markets reporter to pursue.)

As Alloway explains, “the price of oil for future delivery was higher than the expected price of immediate ‘spot’ delivery,” so it made more sense for commodities traders to snatch up and store petroleum, rather than put it up for sale. Buy now, sell later.

It is at this point that I conceded defeat. Storing oil, it turns out, requires incredibly good ventilation and a rock-solid insurance policy, both of which were severely lacking at my 400-square foot New York apartment. While Bloomberg LP’s headquarters might prove more suitable on both counts, I doubted my ability to roll 100-pounds plus of highly-toxic liquid in a bright blue barrel past the building’s notoriously strict security guards.

So she bought a bottle of the stuff instead. Now Alloway has agreed to sell it to a Financial Times reporter in exchange for virtual currency.

On paper, she’ll likely make $0.07 on the deal. (That doesn’t include costs due to lost productivity.)

“In the meantime however, I am happy with my pint-size pet oil,” she writes. “I keep it in the dark, away from open flames. I shake it every once in a while to prevent it from settling.”

Indeed, in the commodities business, one should never settle.For more on oil prices, watch this video below.

U.S. government is calling bitcoin anything but a currency

Many a bitcoin die-hard will tell you that the virtual currency is not only a currency, but also one of the few available for use that can’t be debased by greedy governments.

It’s perhaps not surprising then, that the most powerful government in the world, at least when it comes to global finance, doesn’t even agree that bitcoin is a currency at all.

On Thursday, the Commodities and Futures Trading Commission announced that it had settled charges against Coinflip, Inc., and its CEO Francisco Riordan for operating an exchange that sold bitcoin options without following appropriate regulations.

“In this order, the CFTC for the first time finds that Bitcoin and other virtual currencies are properly defined as commodities,” the press release said.

Last year, the IRS ruled that it would treat bitcoin as property, not as a currency, meaning among other things that gains from the sale of bitcoins can be taxed.

Markets are taking another battering this morning

Wall Street opened sharply lower on Tuesday after weak data from China heightened fears of a slowdown in the world’s second-largest economy.

Data showed that China’s manufacturing sector shrank at its fastest pace in three years. The services sector, which has been one of the lone bright spots in the country’s economy, also showed signs of cooling.

The Dow Jones industrial average was lately down over 400 points, a drop of 2.4%. The broader Nasdaq Composite and the S&P 500 index also tumbled in the early going.

“With the weak data coming out, we’re going to see the negative sentiment from the last few weeks continuing,” said Joe Rundle, a senior sales trader at ETX Capital.

Wall Street ended lower on Monday and wrapped up its worst month since 2012 after comments from a senior Federal Reserve official appeared to indicate a U.S. interest hike in September.

Adding to the nervousness: the head of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, said that global economic growth was now likely to be weaker than had been expected just a few months ago.